How to raise hatchery chicks at home?

Chicken meat, chicken eggs are healthy foods that everyone has on the table. Therefore, raising chickens is not only a profitable business, but also a payback. However, before deciding to start breeding chickens, it is still worthwhile to study in detail all the nuances of breeding chickens, keeping and growing.

In this article we will talk about raising chickens at home for beginners, learn how to raise chickens, why chickens vilify, what to give broilers for diarrhea and other pressing issues.

How to choose chicks when buying?

Raising chickens from an incubator at home is a profitable business, because in addition to meat and eggs, bird feathers and manure can be successfully used as an organic fertilizer. But in order for this business to be beneficial, it is necessary to choose the right chickens.

The best time to buy chickens is April-May.... It is advisable to purchase day old chicks. It is better to buy chicks at poultry farms, because in these places there are guarantees that the individuals are healthy and strong. However, in order to choose chickens, you need to know the nuances of selection depending on the age of the individuals.

Daily

In order not to be mistaken and to acquire healthy day old chicks during the purchase, you need to pay attention to a number of criteria for the appearance of young individuals:

1. The chick must be dryhealthy and active;
2. The down should not be sticky. In appearance, he must be fluffy, free from dirt and foreign debris;
3. At the day-old calves at the time of sale the umbilical cord must be overgrown;
4. It is imperative to carefully examine the umbilical cord. If there is discharge on it, then this young growth is not worth buying. Discharge is the first sign of the presence of infectious diseases;
5. The cloaca must be clean, pink in color with a moist texture. There should be no dirt, traces of droppings on it;
6. The chicks should have reaction to sounds;
7. The back should be straight;
8. The head should be straight;
9. Smooth and correct beak with a pigmented structure.

Freshly hatched broiler chicks

Weekly

Sometimes poultry farmers buy one week old chicks to save money and time. However, this is not always the correct and correct decision. Young individuals at this age are susceptible to diseases. In addition, their body is weak and weak.

But if you do decide to purchase weekly chickens, you should consider the following selection criteria:

• Individuals must be active and healthy;
• The plumage should be fluffy without dirt, traces of droppings;
• The abdomen should be soft to the touch;
• The head is straight, proportional;
• The beak is straight with a pigmented structure;
• Good response to sounds;
• Should already be worked out pecking reflex;
• The wings should be tightly attached to the body;
• The cloaca should be clean, pink and free from dirt and secretions.

Monthly

Chicks one month old are rarely purchased for divorce. Still, some farmers believe that during this period, individuals survive better and they have developed immunity to infectious diseases... Perhaps this is so, but you should not trust this criterion. Sometimes monthly individuals get sick much more often.

In any case, the criteria for choosing monthly chicks are the same:

1. Activity and mobility;
2. Good response to sounds;
3. Plumage - fluffy, without dirt, droppings, with a smooth structure;
4. The abdomen should have a soft texture to the touch;
5. The head must be level and proportional;
6. The beak should have an even outline with a pigmented structure;
7. The chicks should already have a well-developed pecking reflex;
8. It is worth paying attention to the wings, they should be tightly pressed to the body;
9. The cloaca should be clean, pink, and free from droppings and secretions.

Newly hatched chicks in the pen

Is it better to grow with a hen or in an incubator?

Features of hatching chickens with a hen for beginners

How to grow a chicken from an egg at home without an incubator? Some experienced farmers prefer hatching eggs under a hen because it is a natural process.

It is worth noting that identifying a chicken that is ready to hatch is straightforward. It is advisable to pay attention to the behavior of chickens. If suddenly the chicken does not get out of the nest for a long time or stays there for the night, then this probably indicates that the instinct of incubation has awakened in it.

But do not immediately lay eggs under it, it is advisable to observe the behavior of the individual for some time... It is necessary to let the chicken sit. A ready-made chicken for incubation, when pulled out of the nest, emits bubbling sounds and is torn with all its might back to incubation in the nest. In this case, raising day-old chicks at home will be quite economical.

Depending on the weight of the individual, 11 to 21 eggs are laid under it. The incubation area must be separated from the rest of the chickens. You can use a separate cage for the nesting site, or place the nest in a dark corner of the chicken coop.

Be sure to feed the henso that she does not die of hunger and exhaustion, which often happens. It is necessary to forcefully remove the chicken from the nest and feed and water it 2 times a day.

Chicks with a hen hatch in 20-21 days. Sometimes there are cases when a brood hen, without waiting for complete hatching, can throw the remaining eggs and go for a walk with the already hatched individuals. Therefore, to prevent these unpleasant problems, those individuals that have already hatched are placed in a box or in a warm place, a lamp is first installed above them. On days 22-23, the family unites.

Pros:

• Natural process;
• High survival rate;
• Chicks from the moment of hatching and in the subsequent period are together with the hen;
• Economical. This method will require fairly low financial costs.

Minuses:

• Long process;
• Low number of hatching chicks per season;
• There is a likelihood of pecking eggs by a brood hen during incubation;
• Chicks can be hatched in this way only once a season and only in warm weather.

Feeding broiler chicks hatched in an incubator

Features of raising chickens in an incubator at home and feeding them

Breeding chickens using an incubator is in great demand, and this is evidenced by the advantages of growing chickens after an incubator, among which the main ones should be highlighted:

1. Beneficial use. In one season, the incubator is used up to 10 times;
2. Simple use... This device is easy to handle, does not need to be fed, watered, and there is no need to worry that the brood hen will peck the eggs;
3. You can lay from 50 eggs and more at a time;
4. Breeding chicks all year round... These devices provide all the functions that provide output in winter and summer.

Depending on the function, incubators are mechanical, manual and automatic.

In a manual incubator, each egg is turned manually... The use of a mechanical incubator is almost the same as that of a hand held device. However, in this type of incubator, turning is carried out not for one egg, but all at once. In addition, compliance with humidity and temperature control in both types of devices lies entirely with the owner.

But devices with automatic turning of eggs greatly simplify the life of the farmer, because they have a digital thermostat installed in them. During the laying of eggs, it is required to set a certain temperature, and it remains stable during the subsequent incubation period.

If the temperature regime rises or falls sharply, then the mechanism makes a sharp sound... In addition, the eggs are turned every hour, which prevents the embryo from sticking to the shell, and increases the percentage of chick survival. However, these devices are expensive. But this is the only way you can raise healthy chickens.

Correct management of newly hatched broiler chicks

Conditions of detention

Premises

Keeping chickens out of the hatchery at home is easy. Remember a few rules for caring for a chicken house:

1. An important condition of the room is cleanliness. Be sure to clean up the place where the chicks are kept every day, remove garbage, uneaten food. Otherwise, infections can quickly appear in an uncleaned room;
2. If litter is available in the house, it is regularly changed. It must always be clean and dry;
3. It is not advisable that a large number of poultry be present in the place of detention. It is important to provide young animals with free space so that they can walk freely, run, fully exercise all motor functions;
4. Number of livestock keeping directly depends on the area of ​​the place for keeping chicks.

Do not keep chicks indoors all the time. Regularly, you need to take the bird population outside for walking, but preferably at 2 months of age. Fresh air, obtaining additional green fodder are the main conditions for the full functioning of all the poultry's digestive organs.

Light

The second important condition for keeping chicks is light. The length of daylight hours depends on the age of the young.

From the first days of a chicken's life, it is necessary to maintain the duration of daylight hours at least 18 hours... This is then reduced to 10 hours before the chicks reach 4 months of age.

These indicators do not depend on the type of chicken breed. In addition, it does not matter what the poultry is grown for - for eggs or meat, this indicator should remain unchanged. The duration of daylight hours in winter can be maintained by the presence of additional lighting in the room where the individuals are kept.

Temperature for breeding healthy individuals

Temperature parameters depend on the age of the bird:

• For diurnal individuals up to 5 days of age, a suitable temperature regime in the room is considered to be up to +32 degrees Celsius;
• With the onset of 6 days of life and up to 9 days, the temperature gradually decreases to +28 degrees Celsius;
• From day 10 to day 20, the temperature regime is reduced by another 3 degrees +25 degrees Celsius;
• In the subsequent period, the temperature should be maintained from +20 degrees to 24 degrees Celsius.

Maintaining an optimal temperature level can be ensured by using lamps for lighting. In winter, additional heaters can be installed.

Food

What to give in the first days of life

Chick feeding should be started immediately after hatching.... But still, it is worth waiting for a while for them to dry out, to get a little stronger.

A small amount of corn grits should be poured into a feeder with a flat base or simply on the bottom of the box. This cereal has a fine structure, so this food will be most suitable for newborn chicks.

Do not give crushed yolk to newborn chickens. This product has a high fat content. Also, many veterinarians note that this food does not exert proper stress on the muscular structure of the stomach of a newborn chicken. As a result, the formation and structure of the walls of the stomach is disrupted. If roughage is given after this meal, it can cause indigestion.

Feeding day old chicks

The diet of diurnal individuals, in contrast to newly hatched chicks, is already more varied. In addition to corn grits, individuals can be given other types of feed:

1. Semolina;
2. Barley groats;
3. Millet;
4. Ground oat flakes;
5. Wheat groats.

The feeding process for day old chicks should be done every two hours.... Feed should be given in small portions. It is advisable not to mix cereals, otherwise some individuals will begin to choose their favorite food and will only eat it. Therefore, it is best to give feed mixtures individually and dry.

For full-fledged growth and development, chicks should be given other components in addition to cereals. For young individuals, cottage cheese is very useful. Thanks to this product, the body of chickens is saturated with nitrogenous substances and calcium. Cottage cheese can be given from 2-3 days after the emergence of chicks in the morning, pre-mixing with cereals.

Organization of feeding of grown chickens

It is worth remembering that dairy products provide high value for babies... Instead of water, whey, liquid kefir can be poured into the drinker. On the third day, individuals can be fed with greens. For food, you can use plantain, clover, dandelion, nettle, biting. On the 5th day, green onions should be introduced. Green onions have a beneficial effect - they provide high protection for the body against various intestinal diseases.

Weekly

Individuals of one week of age can already begin to give a mixture of corn, barley, oat and wheat groats. The cereals are mixed in equal proportions - 1: 1.

Additionally, chopped herbs and dairy products can be added to the mixture. During this period, individuals can already be fed less often, but portions should be large. Up to 4-5 feedings should be received per day.

Period

From a month or more, chicks are released outside for walking. For this reason, the diet during this period is green. Through the use of herbs and other greens, individuals receive the vitamins necessary for their growing body.

Besides coarsely ground grain is introduced into the diet of individual layers... From a month and a half, adults should eat whole grains. You can give meat and bone meal and food waste.

How to determine the gender of a chicken: chicken or rooster?

In the egg

How to identify a chicken from a rooster in an egg? Not many poultry farmers will be satisfied when, after hatching, the percentage of males will be almost 80-90%.Therefore, in these cases, the method of determining the sex of a cock or a chicken by egg is used. It would seem that this task is difficult and almost impossible, but this is far from the case.

To determine the sex of the egg, recommendations will help:

• First you need take an egg in your right hand, while the sharp end of the egg should be directed upwards;
• Further run your left finger along the top of it;
• If a ring and tubercles are observed at the upper end, then these criteria indicate that a cockerel will appear. If the top of the egg has a smooth structure - a chicken.

Hatching chicks with a brood hen

At day-old

How to distinguish a chicken from a cockerel at one day of age? At one day of age, sexual characteristics do not appear at all clearly, so it is quite difficult to determine the sex. Females usually have more luxuriant plumage., but males, on the contrary, are scarce, in some places they can be without fluff.

At 2 months

How to tell a rooster from a chicken at 2 months old? At this age, gender can be determined using several methods:

• By plumage... Individuals with abundant plumage are females, and those with poor plumage are males;
• By this age, the cockerels have a comb, the beard turns red, and the face is rounded;
• In cockerels, legs become longer, spurs can already be seen on them;
• In males, overgrown plaits appear on the tail.

At 3 and 4 months

How to distinguish a rooster from a chicken at 3 or 4 months At the age of 3 months, sex determination of individuals is much easier, in roosters you can see the following external characteristics:

1. The scallop becomes bright in color;
2. The crest, beard and earrings become large;
3. The legs become high;
4. Spurs are already clearly visible on the legs;
5. The tail has long braids.

Methods for determination in poultry farms

In addition to traditional methods for determining the sex of chickens, there are other methods that are usually used in poultry farms. These methods help to determine the gender with the greatest probability.

Cytogenetic way

How can a cockerel be distinguished from a chicken by this method? This method is based on the determination of the age by the karyotype of the fast-acting cells of the feather pulp. Usually in males who are not even a month old, the Z chromosome acts as the longest metacentric.

In females, the number of these chromosomes is 10 times less; W-chromosomes - submetacentric - predominate in their bodies. If, during the analysis, it is found that the Z-chromosome is present in the body in a single copy, then this is a chicken, if there are a lot of these chromosomes, then it means a cockerel.

Sex determination of chicks by different methods

DNA

This method, how to distinguish chickens from females, allows you to determine the sex of the chicks with the greatest probability. It is based on blot hybridization of blood DNA with a primer.

The juvenile can be identified with high accuracy using the analysis of samples or whole blood, washed erythrocytes. The disadvantages of this method include high cost and labor intensity.

On the wings

Determining gender using this method:

1. The first way is inspecting the color of the wings... At the age of 2-3 days, the wings of the chicks are examined - in males they are slightly lighter than in females;
2. The second way is in counting feathers... It is necessary to pull the wing of the chick and spread it. Chickens fledge first, for this reason 6-7 primary feathers are large in size, unlike others. But males have all the same feathers.

To size

The sex of the chicks is determined depending on their size. Typically, a high-precision balance is used for this method. If an individual has a large enough mass for its age, then it is a cockerel. If the mass is small, then this is a female. Usually the difference in weight is about 5 grams.

How to tell the sex of a hen by color?

Determination of sex by color of plumage is mainly used for purebred individuals:

• Running shoes... At about the age of 1 day, sexual characteristics are determined: beige is typical for females, and white for males;
• Autosex breeds... Chickens have monochromatic colors - gray, white, black, and males have stripes;
• Brahmas... Females have distinct stripes on the back and points on the head. Males also have stripes and dots, but they are slightly blurred;
• Rhode Island and New Hampshire breeds. On the second day after hatching, dark spots and stripes can be seen on the head of females; males do not have these characteristics;
• Adler silver. Females are yellow in color, and males are lemon with a black stripe on their heads.

Japanese method

This method of sex determination of chicks is used in many poultry farms. The accuracy of this method is almost 95%. However, to implement this method, you need to have special skills.

Before you start sex determination using this method, it is worth understanding the structure of the chicks' genitals and finding out their differences.

Males can be separated from females by detecting a tubercle in the anus, which is absent in future chickens:

1. First of all, the chick's cloaca is cleaned of traces of droppings;
2. Next, the individual should be taken in the palm of your hand, turned over, the legs should be spread so that the cloaca is clearly visible;
3. The hole must be pushed apart, at the same time you need to press on the abdomen. As a result of these manipulations, the internal structure of the cloaca will be clearly visible.

External differences between the cloaca of females and males:

• In females, the cloaca looks like a neat nodule without bulges;
• In males, a genital tubercle is quite often found.

To avoid unpleasant consequences, this method should only be carried out by an experienced poultry breeder or farmer.

Arranging a place for newly hatched chicks

Reflex

how to distinguish chicks by sex using this method? This gender determination method is performed in two ways:

1. You should take the chick by the scruff of the neck and look behind the legs for a while. Usually chickens try to curl their legs, and clench the claws. At the same time, it raises the paws a little. And the bettas, on the contrary, do not twist their legs, and do not move them, they hang in an even position;
2. You can, on the contrary, take the chick by the legs and look behind the position of the head. Chickens usually lift their heads up., and the cockerels, on the contrary, hang without moving.

How to distinguish a cock from a chicken by voice?

Usually this method is used by the Orpington and Cochin peoples. The voice of males is the most coarse, similar to a quack. In females, on the contrary, the voice is softer, they mostly squeak. This method does not always allow you to accurately determine the sex characteristics of individuals. It is mainly used by experienced poultry farmers.

How do you determine your age?

Usually the age of chicks is determined by the plumage. It is advisable to remember the features of plumage depending on age:

• Between 8 and 12 days of age, feathering appears in the shoulder area;
• In the period from 12 to 16 days, feathers appear on the crop and breast;
• In chicks of three weeks of age, the first molt is observed, while all the fluff falls out of the tail;
• At the end of the fifth week, flight feathers grow, and feathers appear on the back of the body;
• At six weeks of age, a feather covers the head and lower body;
• Full plumage is observed at the age of 3 months.

Diseases of chickens

Chickens, as well as chicks of other bird species, are susceptible to various diseases. The following diseases are most common:

1. Avitominosis;
2. Poisoning;
3. Digestive disorders;
4. Salmonellosis;
5. Coccidosis;
6. Typhus and many others.

In order to properly treat diseases, it is worth knowing what symptoms are characterized by diseases in chickens.

Diarrhea in chickens

Why broilers vilify chickens is sometimes quite difficult to figure out. Below, let's try to figure out and understand all the reasons for this phenomenon.

White diarrhea in broilers: can it be cured?

Quite often, chickens develop white diarrhea. It is also called pullorosis.This disease usually occurs in an acute form and quickly affects the fragile intestines of chickens. The causative agent of this disease is a bacillus called salmonella. The disease usually spreads at a high rate, in a few days almost all birds can get sick.

White diarrhea in broiler chicks

How to cure diarrhea in chickens? For prophylaxis, you need to clean the room of debris, disinfect everything. It is also imperative to check the room temperature and ventilation.

Recovered individuals are subject to destruction. Meat from sick birds should not be eaten.

Yellow diarrhea in broilers: why it occurs and how to treat it?

This diarrhea can occur during infectious diseases, as well as if the conditions of detention are not observed. Sometimes yellow droppings are seen in Gumboro disease. In these cases, an examination, testing is carried out.

Besides yellow diarrhea can result from stress, hypothermia, due to poor quality feed. In these cases, folk remedies are used for treatment and the premises are disinfected.

Yellow diarrhea in chickens

Bloody diarrhea in chickens: a symptom of what diseases?

Bloody diarrhea usually occurs with coccidiosis. This disease is dangerous and often leads to the death of the entire bird population. This disease occurs due to poor hygiene, namely, untimely cleaning of the room. This disease affects the intestines. In addition to diarrhea, the following conditions are observed:

• Loss of appetite;
• Lethargy, inactivity;
• Tousled plumage;
• Impurities of blood and mucus appear in the droppings.

How to treat if chickens have bloody diarrhea? For treatment and prevention, it is necessary to clean and disinfect the room in a timely manner, vaccinate and give the appropriate chemicals.

Light brown diarrhea in broiler chickens and its treatment

Broilers have brown diarrhea with eimeriosis. This disease is caused by various parasitic protozoa that accumulate in the intestines of chickens or hens. Infection usually occurs through food, dirty bedding, gadfly.

Symptoms of the disease:

1. Individuals sit in one place with their eyes closed;
2. Tousled plumage;
3. The wings are hanging to the floor;
4. Lack of appetite;
5. Brown diarrhea with mucus.

The disease is determined during the study. Treatment is best done at an early stage. For treatment, drugs are used - coccidiostatics.

Light brown diarrhea in chickens

Chickens vilify green

Green diarrhea can occur with pasteurellosis disease. In this case, examinations, analyzes are carried out. If the diagnosis is confirmed, then appropriate treatment is prescribed.

In the absence of pasteurellosis, green diarrhea can cause poor-quality expired feed. In this case, the treatment is carried out using adsorbing agents (activated carbon). Suspicious feed must be disposed of and only high quality feed provided.

Green diarrhea in chickens

Worms

Chickens often have such an unpleasant disease as helminthiasis. This condition poses a particular danger, and in almost 50% of cases, if not treated promptly, it leads to death. Signs of worms in chickens are severe emaciation.

The main danger of this disease is that it affects all individuals in the same room. Worms are excreted along with the droppings of affected individuals and, together with food, enter the body of healthy individuals.

What to do if chickens develop worms? In order to save the entire livestock of birds, you need to plant infected chicks in time, clean the room, remove all bedding and disinfect everything. Infected individuals should be given antihelminthic drugs and nutritious food. Medicine for worms in chickens should be given as early as possible.

Disease prevention

Preventive measures for various diseases of chickens include the following recommendations:

• Timely cleaning and disinfection of the premises saline solutions, caustic soda, bleach;
• Compliance with the density of livestock in the poultry house. It is desirable that the number of chicks in one room be moderate;
• Quality feed with a high nutrient content;
• It is imperative to equip the ventilation of the room;
• Compliance with the temperature regime of the room;
• Soldering birds with drugs against infectious diseases;
• Timely vaccination.

Breeding chickens is a laborious process that requires a lot of responsibility. In order for the livestock to be healthy, it is imperative to follow all the rules of keeping. The main condition for the full growth and development of chicks is care and attention!

Now you know how to raise chickens at home, how to treat chickens, what to do if chickens develop worms, and how to treat diarrhea in chickens and adults. Follow all recommendations and watch out for chicks.

And a video on how to feed chickens:

Chickens are a source of healthy dietary and tasty meat, as well as eggs - one of the main food products on our table. Therefore, it is not surprising that so many people with personal plots decide on such a responsible matter as raising chickens on their own. Everything here is not as simple as it seems: growing chickens implies many nuances, but even a beginner in the world of poultry can cope with this business if desired.

How to raise chickens at home

Chickens: for meat or for eggs

Before you rush to the poultry farm and buy the first chickens that come across, decide for what purpose you need chickens. There are many breeds of these domestic birds (about 700 different species), and they are all subdivided into several types.

1. Meat - the largest breeds of chickens, massive and well-fed calm birds, which give large weighty carcasses with a lot of meat (these are the Brahma, Cornish, Faverol and others). They have a well-developed hatching instinct.

   Brama chickens

2. Meat and egg - universal breeds that are used to obtain both meat and eggs (for example, Golosheinaya, New Hampshire, Kuchinskaya Jubilee). The most convenient breeds for novice poultry breeders and for keeping in household plots.

   Breed Kuchin Jubilee

3. Egg - small and graceful hens with good egg production (Leghorn, Russian White breed). You can get about 270 eggs from one laying hen per year, but there is not a lot of meat from them.

   Russian white chickens

4. Fighting chickens possess a special "hot-tempered" temperament. Previously bred for cockfighting. In Russia now practically no one is engaged in breeding them (Indian black, Malay).

   Chickens of the Malay breed

5. Decorative chickens are distinguished by their special beauty and charm. As a rule, they have very unusual plumage - tufts, protruding feathers, unusual colors. They are small in size and are intended for aesthetic decoration of the site (the most popular breeds are Dwarf Cochinquin, Silkova, Bentamka).

   Bentham Peking

For beginners in the world of domestic poultry farming, it is best to purchase a universal meat and egg breed for raising chickens: if you enjoy fiddling with chicks, and then receive, thanks to the livestock of chickens, additional food or even income from the sale of meat and eggs, then you can already more seriously think about breeding chickens and already try to purchase chickens of other breeds.

For beginners, it is recommended to start by breeding chicken meat and egg breeds.

Incubator or chicks

Having decided on the breed, it is time to decide how to raise healthy and strong chickens at home. There are two ways to get chicks: you can buy them at a poultry farm, or by purchasing eggs, you can independently participate in the process of giving birth to feathered crumbs.

Hatching eggs and hatched chicks

The easiest way is to buy hatched chickens - as they say, there is less hassle, especially for a beginner. But if you really want to, then you can try to bring the kids out on your own. Then you will need an incubator - a special apparatus into which the acquired hatching egg is placed.

Photo incubator

It creates the conditions necessary for the correct development of chickens inside the egg - and this is not only humidity and temperature (38.5 - 39 degrees), but also the ability to turn eggs. Turning the eggs is important for proper chick formation. A brood hen manages to turn each testicle several dozen times a day. If you decide to breed hatching chickens, then get ready to turn the eggs yourself, since incubators with an automatic turning mechanism are not used for domestic purposes (as a rule, such devices are used in industry and are designed for a very large number of eggs). At home, it is enough to buy an incubator for 30-50 eggs.

Automatic egg turnover tray in incubator with turnover timer

How to properly hatch chickens using an incubator?

1. To avoid confusing the sides of the eggs when flipping, mark one side with a pencil.

   Mark one side of the egg with a pencil

2. It is best to buy an egg for an incubator no older than 3 days - if it has been lying longer, then the probability of hatching is only 50%.
3. After purchasing eggs, put them in a heated incubator and leave for a day, do not touch them. The first day you do not need to turn the eggs.
4. By the way, eggs need not only be turned over, but also shifted from the walls to the middle, swapped - the fact is that the temperature inside the apparatus at the edges is 1-2 degrees lower than in the middle.

   Turn the eggs over and swap them

5. Testicles will begin to hatch on the 19th day. At this time, we begin to gradually reduce the temperature in the incubator to 37.5 degrees and stop turning the eggs. Chickens will see the light of day on the 20th-22nd day.

   Hatching chick

   Chicken embryo development stages

Purchase rules

Of course, it is better for a beginner not to mess with the incubator, but simply go to the poultry farm for the young. We advise you to avoid buying chickens at “bird markets” or from unverified personalities: you can easily “run into” sick chickens for which no one will refund your money. Follow a few general rules to get quality chicks:

1. Go shopping with someone who has already kept chickens. He will help you choose healthy and good chicks.
2. If you have the opportunity to provide your chicks with housing during the cold season, then it is best to buy them in the winter, since this time of the year is not the season for selling and buying poultry, and you can save a significant amount of money. In addition, chickens born in winter are stronger and more resilient, and the most serious and responsible period of rearing falls at the beginning of spring, when the probability of "catching" bird diseases is the least.
3. If you have to buy chicks on your own, then take a closer look at each feathered baby, evaluate its appearance: the fluff of the chicks should be clean, soft and fluffy, even and shiny.

   Choose your chicks carefully

4. Examine the head of the chicken: the eyes should be clean and shiny, the beak is thick and short, without any discharge.
5. Evaluate the chick's physique: good babies have their wings pressed to the body, the tummy is soft, but not saggy.
6. The umbilical cord must be clean and free of blood. Examine the cloaca: there should be no traces of discharge around it, it should be pink in color.
7. Little chickens are an active and lively people. Don't buy a chicken sitting dejectedly in the corner of a box.

   Get an active chicken

8. It would not hurt to weigh the chicken - the normal weight of a newly hatched baby should be at least 35 grams.
9. Once the purchase has been made, place the chicks in a transport box, the bottom of which is covered with hay or wood shavings. The air temperature in the box must be at least 26 degrees.

   Chicks in a transport box

Conditions of detention

Before going after chickens or starting to hatch them in the incubator, take care of where the babies will live - you will have to build a chicken coop or convert any other room for it. Yes, at first, chickens can live in a box, but crampedness is not the best condition for raising healthy chickens, because they need movement.

Rules for keeping and caring for chickens

1. Stock your chicks at 20 chicks per square meter. When the babies reach the age of 4-5 weeks, they are settled in 17 chicks per square meter, and, starting from the age of 10-20 weeks, 10 chicks.
2. The coop should be dry, warm and light, there should be no drafts. Be sure to disinfect the area before releasing chicks.
3. In the early days, use paper sprinkled with fine mixed feed or corn grits as bedding.
4. Temperature is an important factor in the successful rearing of chickens. For the first 7 days, it should be at least 30 degrees, and within a month it should decrease to 20 degrees.

Keeping chickens at home

Temperature conditions for chicks by age are shown in the following table.

1-2	36
3-4	34
5-7	32
14-21	29
22-35	27
40-60	24
60 and more	20

It is not recommended to heat the room with lamps, since in this case the daylight regime is disturbed, and because of this, the birds begin to get nervous and cannibalism may even spread. It is best to use an electric heater to heat the room. It takes about 20 hours a day for tiny chicks to light a room, and 8-10 hours for birds at the age of 2 months.

The chick feeder and drinker should be located in a location where babies can easily access water or food. You cannot feed birds from the floor.

In the photo, chickens near the feeder

What to feed

Feeding chicks is an important aspect of their proper development and growth. Experts recommend feeding the birds with special dry food, which is sold in any veterinary store. Start feeding chickens with starter feeds, gradually moving to regular feeds.

1-5 days	The first week, chickens eat very often - it is important to feed them every 2 hours with cottage cheese, boiled egg mixed with semolina or corn grits at the rate of 1 egg or 50 grams of cottage cheese combined with 50 grams of cereals per 10 heads. It is useful to give the bird oat flakes mixed with milk powder at the rate of ¼ part of the food volume. On the 3rd day, add chopped greens to the diet of future chickens and cockerels. If the green season has not yet arrived, then add herbal flour to your food.
7 days	Add curdled milk or broth mash.
10 days	Connect grated carrots, zucchini, boiled potatoes to the above products. Also add crushed eggshells, chalk to the chicken menu.
20 days	Now the birds can eat everything: add to the diet waste from cutting fish or meat, meat and bone meal. On average, the amount of food for chickens increases daily by 10%.

If you do not want to buy ready-made dry food for chickens, then prepare your own cereal mixture for babies - it's easy. It is enough to mix wheat (35%) and corn (35%) with oats (10%) and barley (20%).

Feeding chicks

Please note: chicken mash should be eaten in 30-40 minutes at the rate of 30 grams per head. It is important to remove what is left from the feast in the feeders, since if the chickens swallow spoiled food, they can be poisoned.

A chick full and happy with life has a full goiter, which is checked after feeding. As a rule, after a hearty meal, the crumbs sleep.

Well-fed chicken in the palm of your hand

Do not forget about vitamins for chickens: they can be purchased at veterinary pharmacies and added to feed.It is useful to give the birds and fish oil: it is given in the morning along with the grain.

Chiktonik (vitamins) for birds

Kefir, yogurt or whey are very useful for birds: they should be given early in the morning.

Make sure that the birds always have clean and fresh water in the drinking bowls, as well as the grown chicks have bowls of sand or gravel - they are necessary so that food can grind in the stomachs of the birds. Chicks will nibble on gravel or sand as needed.

Chicken sand plate

Pay attention to how the chickens eat: those who are weaker, as a rule, cannot break through to the feeder or drinker. Such birds are fed separately for some time, separating them from their fellows. Over time, they will gain strength and will be able to withstand more lively comrades.

Grown chickens - photo

Video - Keeping and feeding chickens

Video - Feeding chickens on the first day

For cultivation, young birds should be selected that are healthy in appearance.

Healthy chicks of chickens are mobile, react well to external stimuli, to sound, they have tight tummies, umbilical cords do not have traces of bleeding, the fluff is shiny, even.

They stand firmly on their feet, the wings are tightly pressed to the body.

Sick chickens are characterized by saggy tummies with a poorly tightened, not dried umbilical cord, the wings are lowered, the gait is sluggish, wobbly.

There is also no reaction to any stimuli, the chickens stand on the sidelines and do not participate in the general fuss.

…

Raising chickens

In the process of caring for chickens, you need to constantly monitor their weight so that it is possible to correct the existing state of affairs if some of the chicks, for a number of reasons, began to lag behind in development, grow poorly and eat poorly.

Youngsters gain their weight most quickly in the first two months of life. Chicks of the egg breed become 16 times heavier than their daily norm, meat and egg - 18.5 times, and meat and even more - as much as 30 times.

Chickens should not be fed stale, musty feed.... Feeding them should begin immediately after they are warmed up and dry after hatching. In order to maintain a comfortable air temperature for them, an electric heater is installed in the room.

The optimal temperature indicators are 18-20 C. From the first day, the temperature should be kept at levels - 30-32 C, after a week - 30-28 C, from 10 to 20 days - 26-24 C, after 21 days - 24-20 C In this case, the indicators of air humidity should be approximately 70%.

Organization of feeding

In the early days, there is no better food for young chicks than hard-boiled and well-minced eggs.

Millet, crushed oatmeal, curdled milk, low-fat curd can be added to this food.

On day 3, the diet of small birds becomes somewhat more varied.

Now it is enriched with finely chopped greens of alfalfa, nettle, clover. Baker's yeast is also useful. You can also give grated carrots, beets, and yellow pumpkin.

The best indicator of satiety is full chick goiter and healthy sleep. after every meal. If chickens are reared in the spring-autumn or winter period, when fresh herbs are not available, grass flour can be added to the food. It is also an excellent source of vitamins.

Chickens of meat, egg and meat breeds consume much more food than egg breeds, so they should increase the amount of food by 10-15% every day.

The menu should definitely include protein-rich foods: cottage cheese, buttermilk, skimmed milk. Fresh milk should not be given, since the chicks' stomachs are not yet adapted to this food that is heavy for them.

When feeding fermented milk products to chickens, ensure that the chicks always have fresh, clean water, which must be changed regularly and made sure that no food pieces get into it.

It is better to fix drinkers, since mobile chicks easily overturn containers that are light in weight and stand in the center of the room.

Paduan chicken breed

cannot leave itself unnoticed. Their beauty catches the eye of all poultry lovers.

Raising laying hens is not an easy task. Read it carefully! ...

The diet also includes fish or meat and bone meal. If these are not available, then they can easily be replaced by meat waste from the kitchen, offal, earthworms.

The last chickens are eaten with special pleasure. In addition, the menu should contain lime additives. Wood ash can be a good source of these.

First, it is given in an amount of 0.6 g per head, gradually increasing to 4 g at the age of 2 months.

Chicks should be given food at intervals of two hours, after 10 days of life, the number of feedings becomes less - up to 5 times a day, from 2 months of age, 4 meals are established at intervals of up to 4 hours.

It is advisable that the chickens always have coarse sand in a separate special feeder. In addition, the delicate digestive tracts of chicks, in addition, very poorly assimilate the shells of grains and cereals, so at first they should always be sifted through a sieve.

Necessarily an additive to food is fish oil, which it is desirable to give in the chime, mixing it with crushed cereals or grain.

While the chickens are eating, it is worth carefully monitoring which of them are stronger and more lively, and which constantly remain on the sidelines, being content with leftover food. Such weak chicks should be planted from time to time and fed separately until they "come to life".

Premises

Approximately 1 sq. area, you need to place about 12 chickens day old.

At first, this is a fairly large space for them, but the chickens grow, take up more and more space, and the area for them becomes optimal.

It is necessary to carefully monitor that the air in this place is ventilated, but strong drafts are undesirable.

You need to change your bedding regularly... It should not be allowed to become damp and an unpleasant, specific smell appears in the room.

Any dampness is fatal for chickens. They can easily get sick and die. Their fragile immunity is susceptible to many viruses at this stage of life.

Run under the hen

A good option for raising chickens is to run them under a brood hen.

She, like no one else, is able to take care of her offspring. The hen incubates the eggs, and when the time comes for the chicks to hatch, she is carefully removed.

The chicks are born and they are placed one at a time in a special basket, box or box with a soft cloth lined at the bottom.

From above, the container is closed with gauze and the box is placed in a warm room with a temperature of up to 30 C. The chickens are started again under the hen when the entire hatching is over.

Video

A couple of the following short videos on raising chickens will help you understand this even better:

Compliance with all the rules will help to give birth to healthy offspring of chickens, and proper care and provision of growing chicks with full and varied feed, a constant warm temperature in the room will help to grow healthy and strong individuals, which, in turn, will then give a good offspring.

At first the temperature regime and the growth of chickens will have to be constantly monitored.

But the time spent is worth it. Taking good care of chickens means both healthy offspring and good profit in the future, so be patient before buying day old chickens, looking after them and watching them turn from immature yellow lumps into strong, healthy chickens.

Breeding chickens is a simple and profitable activity, but there are nuances in caring for feathered creatures. One of these moments is the breeding of young animals, which will subsequently grow and provide the owner with quality products.However, not everyone knows how to raise chicks so that they live to the age of an adult. How to raise chickens at home?

We will have to take into account many factors on which the health status of babies depends. So that after hatching of new birds there are no losses, you will have to take care of proper nutrition. And also make sure that the care is permanent.

Raising chickens at home can seem like an overwhelming task for novice poultry breeders. In fact, everything is elementary, the main thing is to be attentive and clearly know what to do with chicks of a certain age.

Buying chickens

The choice of chicks will largely determine how many eggs and meat they can produce. Quality products can only be expected from a chicken that is healthy and viable in all its outward appearance. Therefore, when purchasing young animals, each individual should be examined so as not to buy "defective" ones.

It is better to make a purchase in April or May, and we advise you to buy exactly day-old babies. The place where you can get new chickens for your farm are poultry farms. There you are guaranteed to be able to buy chicks with good health and body.

Daily allowance

Chickens hatched just a day ago are often born with defects. In order not to have such individuals in your livestock, remember the criteria for choosing day-old chicks. A suitable baby for purchase must have the following characteristics:

• high physical activity;
• the downy coating is not sticky, but fluffy, without contamination;
• the umbilical cord is overgrown, there is no discharge in it, which is a clear symptom of a viral infection in an individual;
• the anus is clean, painted pink, there are no traces of dirt and droppings inside;
• good reaction to the sounds of the surrounding world;
• the head is even;
• the beak is straight and regular, its structure is pigmented.

Weekly

To save time and money, many farmers buy chickens that were born 7 days ago. This is not the most preferable option, since birds at this age often suffer from various diseases.

Due to the fact that the body simply did not have time to get stronger, the young are hard to bear diseases. Therefore, when choosing weekly chickens, you should be doubly careful, otherwise there is a chance to get a sick individual in your livestock.

The criteria for the selection of day old chicks are as follows:

• the baby must move a lot;
• feathers are fluffy to the touch, there are no spots or defects on them;
• the stomach is soft;
• smooth beak with pigmented structure;
• the chick quickly reacts to sounds around him;
• there is a reflex pecking;
• the wings are pressed against the body;
• the anus is clean and pink.

Period

The purchase of one month old laying hens is rarely done if the farmer's goal is to breed birds. However, there are many poultry farmers who buy and raise them, believing that layers of this age have a higher survival rate and are less likely to suffer from viral diseases.

It is impossible to say for sure whether this statement is true, since in some cases, chickens after 4 weeks of age get sick quite often.

Having decided to still acquire monthly chicks, remember the criteria by which you should choose them:

• the baby is active and mobile, reacts well to the surrounding reality;
• the feather cover is fluffy, without spots and defects;
• the stomach is soft;
• the head is even and correct, corresponds to all proportions;
• the beak is straight, has a pigmented structure;
• reflex pecking develops from birth;
• the wings are tightly pressed to the body.

Raising chickens with a hen: nuances and features

If you plan to hatch chicks from eggs without resorting to the incubation method, you will have to use the help of chickens. The key point is the hatching instinct, which is developed to one degree or another in all females.

To choose a chicken that will replace an incubator in such a case as raising chickens, you should take a closer look at the behavior of the inhabitants of the hen house. If the laying hen sits in the nest for a long time or spends the night in it, she will become an excellent brood hen.

But before you trust her with eggs, make sure that she has time to sit down. It is very easy to understand that the chicken is ready to care for the offspring. To do this, the bird must be removed from the nest. If she begins to cluck and reach back, then the individual can incubate the testicles.

Raising day old chicks is especially well suited, as there is an opportunity to save additional money and not spend money on an incubator.

Up to 21 eggs can be placed under one hen, the exact number depends on the weight of the bird. The nest for her should be placed at a distance from the rest of the inhabitants of the hen house, or even settle the hen in a personal cage. This is necessary so that other chickens do not damage the eggs, because they can peck on the shell.

It is important to remember about feeding the bird, because the nutritional energy reserves in its body are depleted and they need to be replenished. Often, the hen is so carried away by hatching that it completely stops feeding, bringing itself to a state of complete exhaustion.

This can lead to the death of the chicken, so feed it is necessary, whether it wants it or not. The hen will have to be forcibly removed from the nest and carried to the feeding trough and drinking cup at least 2 times a day. There are no differences in the diet, the food can be purchased at pet stores or made a mixture for feeding hens at home.

From eggs hatched by a hen, chicks appear about 20 days after the bird has landed in the nest. For some farmers, it happened that a hen went for a walk with already hatched babies, without waiting for the rest of the world to be born.

In this case, laying chickens, the rearing is uneven. So that this does not interfere with the correct hatching of chickens, babies that have already pecked the shell of eggs should be isolated from the hen. Place them in a warm and lighted place, and return the offspring to the chicken by about 23 days.

Pros of raising chickens with a hen:

• naturalness of the process;
• low mortality of young animals;
• after birth, the chicks will remain with a chicken that will take care of them;
• you don't have to spend a lot of money.

Cons of this method:

• takes a lot of time;
• it will turn out to bring out fewer birds than when using an incubator;
• a brood hen can hatch an egg;
• it is possible to hatch chickens through incubation once a season.

Incubation method for raising hens

Breeding chicks from an incubator is very common among poultry breeders. The high popularity is due to the advantages of this method, which are customary to include the following:

• it is very profitable to use an incubator, since up to 10 batches of eggs can be laid per season;
• it will not be difficult to understand the device of the incubation machine;
• each set batch can be 50 or more eggs;
• you can breed chicks at any time of the year.

Modern incubators are of three types: mechanical, manual and automatic. Each of these varieties has its own pros and cons, so the farmer needs to choose which one to buy for his farm based on his own preferences.

In manual incubation machines, you will have to turn the eggs yourself, since these devices have a manual mode of operation. Mechanical installation practically does not differ in use from manual one.

However, in it, not every single egg is turned over, but all at once. Temperature and humidity conditions are also controlled by the breeder in both incubators.

Automatic incubation machines will allow you to breed chicks with a minimum of effort. The unit is equipped with a digital temperature controller and a self-turning system.

Incubation chick rearing will yield a high proportion of viable chicks, as the machine is constantly maintained at ideal temperature conditions.

When they change, the system will notify the farmer by emitting a sound signal. The high survival rate of babies is also facilitated by the fact that the eggs are regularly turned over. However, for such a rich functionality, you will have to pay a rather big sum. Automatic incubators are expensive, but they will give you quality chicks.

How to keep chickens?

It is necessary to create comfortable conditions for babies in which they could grow and develop normally. In order to competently raise chickens, when creating a room for them, you need to consider the following rules:

1. In the poultry house for young animals it is imperative to be clean. Keeping chickens requires the farmer to constantly make sure that there is no debris, droppings or food debris in the room with babies. By allowing contamination, you put birds at risk of catching some kind of viral infection.
2. It is necessary to put a litter on the floor, which will have to be changed from time to time, as it must be clean and damp.
3. It is better not to settle two or more livestock in one place. Chicks need free space so that tightness does not impair their locomotion.
4. The number of chicks in the flock should be calculated based on the size of the house.

For the correct keeping of chickens at home, you should regularly take the young for a walk. You can start walking from the moment the chicks reach two months of age.

Fresh air and natural green food, which birds will find outdoors, have an extremely beneficial effect on the health and development of future layers.

Experienced poultry farmers always plant young livestock indoors with quality lighting fixtures. It is important to control the duration of daylight hours, since its normal indicator differs in babies of different ages.

For chicks raised by a hen or in an incubator that have just hatched, the length of daylight hours should be at least 18 hours. As the young grow, this figure needs to be lowered.

By the 4th month of life, the daylight hours of chickens should not exceed 10 hours. These values ​​are the same for all breeds of chickens, regardless of whether it is an egg variety of poultry or meat.

Growing chickens at home requires creating the most comfortable temperature indicator, which will be different for each age group.

Day-old babies up to 5 days of age should be kept in a poultry house, where the temperature is maintained at +32 ° C. From 6 to 9 days, this value drops to +28 ° C, and then to +25 ° C by day 20. In the future, the best temperature for rearing chicks is between +20 ° C and +24 ° C.

Feeding after hatching

How to properly feed newly born chicks? First, you should wait until they dry, and then start feeding.

To begin with, you need to pour a little corn grits into the feeder. It has a fine structure, which is great for feeding day-old babies. It is believed that it is better to mix this cereal with crumbled egg yolks, which contain the substances necessary for the organisms of chickens.

This cannot be done, since the yolks are a high fat product that does not exert the required load on the stomach muscles. Because of this, their development may be disrupted, and in the future, birds will often suffer from disorders of the digestive tract.

We list products that are also suitable for feeding day-old chicks:

• semolina, wheat and barley groats;
• ground oat flakes;
• millet.

Newborns should have meals every 2 hours, but portions should not be made large. It is important to note that if you put two different types of cereals in the feeder, then the chickens will only eat one variety, so you do not need to mix.

The diet of young animals must be diversified with foods rich in nutrients that the chick's body requires for proper development. Once the chicks are two or three days old, feed the cottage cheese. It should be chopped up and mixed with the main food.

Feeding grown chicks

When the chicks have matured a little, dairy products should be included in their diet. The cup can be filled with whey or liquid kefir. Upon reaching 3 days of age, feeding with green herbs is allowed.

When the 5th day after birth begins, introduce green onions into the diet. It will help the birds protect their bodies from intestinal diseases.

From one week of age, you can start feeding with mixtures of cereals. They can include cereals from corn, oats, millet and barley in equal amounts. You can diversify the mixture with finely chopped herbs and dairy products. Seven day old chicks should be fed 4 to 5 times a day.

When the age has reached a month, the babies need to be released for walks. In the fresh air, they will find nutritious herbs rich in the elements that babies need.

The farmer, on the other hand, should introduce coarse grains into the diet of birds, and from one and a half months, chickens can eat whole grains, to which bone and fish meal can be added. These components are high in calcium.

To understand all the intricacies and nuances of growing chickens, you must first familiarize yourself with the relevant literature. The Table of Contents of each poultry book and handbook outlines the basic points everyone should know before getting down to business.